Argument for a Low Throughput Society

​ ​ Lifecycling.net has been a website that has emphasized the importance of throughput in relating to environmental, economic, social and educational issues. The importance of this concept is becoming more apparent as time passes. If we consider that money is used to buy resources in one form of another, (even if one hires someone to provide a service, that person may in turn use it to purchase the needed resources to maintain their standard of living) it is important to first turn our attention to the flow of resources through our global system. The point that stands out throughout the website is the decreasing amount of the availability of resources used for positive results. As the years pass more and more resources are used to keep the system afloat. 1) As a particular resource is used in our society such as steel (or any other resource) more of the resource has to be use to mine, drill, process and ship as time passes because the rich, easy to get to deposits are used first leaving deposits that are less rich and further afield. 2) Environmental problems such as chemical spills, droughts, hurricanes, and wild fires which are happening in increasing numbers require an ever increasing amount of resources to mitigate. 3) The social issues are many; however the one issue that really stands out is inequality and tied directly to education in that poorer communities lack the education needed to contribute to the leadership qualities needed to change the society in a positive direction. If we are to raise their standard of living in our present high throughput society to prevent social unrest more resources are needed to remedy this situation. 4) Our health system has many challenges such as certain diseases have become antibiotic resistant, also due to global warming there will be diseases that will move northward, along with increases in allergies and asthma all requiring an increase in resources. 5) Since all of our systems are dependent on computers, hacking has become a global issue requiring additional resources. There are many examples and this becomes evident when we take a look at where the money goes. Does it go to the military to insure we can protect our national interests (resources) which we need desperately to keep the system going, or to flood victims to help them rebuild, or helping communities dealing with wildfires or how about areas dealing with agricultural losses due to droughts? Since resources have to be moved from where they are mined or drilled they can be limited by circumstance. 1) Climate change along with war not only use up valuable resources but can prevent shipping or mining decreasing the available resources. 2) Economic conditions can also limit the movement of resources due to tariffs, sanctions or recessions. In 2007 – 2008 we saw an economic boom which was demonstrated by the Baltic Dry Index. The BDI indicates the global shipping costs of the major commodities; hence there is a direct relationship between the rise of the index to the amount of material being shipped and is a good indicator of supply and demand. The higher the index the more resources are being used by either being shipped or being used in the shipping itself. On May 20, 2008 the BDI reached a peak of 11,793 indicating the great economic boom.

​ During this time period prices of gas, metals (iron, nickel, copper, etc.)and food rose dramatically. Almost every day the price of gas increased until it was around $4.00 per gallon. It is hard to tell exactly why the prices escalated so dramatically. Was it the limit of the mining operations, or refining infrastructure, or shipping? One thing was for sure; the economic principle of supply and demand was clearly in place and demand was outpacing supply (as shown on the BDI graph) and many who had debt could not weather the storm and could not pay their mortgages. The financial system thought the economic rise had no limits and had allowed the debt to accumulate leading to the economic downturn. On December 5, 2008 the BDI had dropped to 663. Many of the shipping companies that were financed went bankrupt which in turn limited future ability to move resources. The BDI recovered to the 4000’s but then continued to drop and is now below 1500, a far cry from 12000. 3) Hacking not only uses resources up in prevention techniques but also if the hacking is successful can disrupt the flow of resources since the entire infrastructure is now computerized. As stated in the beginning money allows us to have access to resources and we must all choose to access the resources that we perceive to benefit us personally and also benefit society as a whole. This is where the argument for a low throughput – low cost society would benefit everyone. Since it is low cost, the poor can actually live a life that is meaningful and less stressful because their needs would be met. The throughput – low cost society would use less resources per capita leading to a decrease in many environmental issues including climate change. Most everyone would be employed because the more affluent would hire many to help with their low throughput systems. Such a society would be planting edible forests that restored the depleted habitats, carbon would be sequestered in the soil to prevent flooding, water collection systems would be built and new technologies developed that supported this new approach instead of deterring it. All of this would require education to develop the conceptual reasoning behind such a change and then the skills to implement the changes. Right now our country has to rebuild after two hurricanes and address the wildfires in the west and there is no alternative other than the path we are now on. Many of the solutions for the future include efficiency and technological fixes that will only work for a short amount of time unless coupled with the throughput concept. We can change this direction, however we don’t want to use our diminishing available resources to set up a system only to figure out how to dismantle it and replace it with a lower throughput (resource use) system. If we can choose to install a low throughput culture we can find a balance with the forces of nature along with more of a peaceful society. Since the population would be less dependent on the flow of resources it provides more security and the people would be less vulnerable to all the increasing limits. Our country could be leaders. In many countries the people have no choice other than to live a simple lifestyle without the education, skills and technologies to enhance their living conditions whereas here in the United States we have the freedom of choice. This freedom makes all the difference, however without the education and skills to make the transition as the available resources diminish this freedom of choice will also diminish. In 1776 our forefathers fought a war to ensure political and religious freedom for future generations. We now have to fight a completely different kind of war, one without weapons to insure the freedom of choice for the generations to come.